The chemicals, energies and materials from lignocellulosic biomass are renewable and sustainable and have the potential to replace fossil feedstocks. Biorefinery, a process to fractionate lignocellulose into the three major components, is considered one of the most promising strategies for bioenergy, biomaterials and biochemicals. Until now, due to the complex hierarchy and chemical structures, a tiny proportion of lignocellulose is valorized into value-added products, and most of them are burned or just discarded, although biomass is the most renewable resource on earth. Therefore, there is a need to exploit the technology (including genetic, biotechnological, and chemical approaches) that can in-depth interpret the heterogeneous structure of lignocellulose and process that can efficiently fractionate the lignocellulose into cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and develop the technology that can convert the lignocellulose into high-value chemical products and high-performance functional materials in thermochemical conversion and biochemical conversion.
Since the complex compositional structure of lignocellulosic biomass and biomass recalcitrance severely inhibited their effective conversion and selective production of high-value products. To overcome this disadvantage, using genetic and biotechnological approaches can modify cell wall composition and change interactions between the major cell wall polymers-cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, which would reduce the biomass recalcitrance and facilitate the subsequent fractionation and conversion of the feedstocks. Furthermore, a comprehensive understanding of its heterogeneous structure by advanced characterization of the state-of-the-art techniques is highly needed, which will guide the further fractionation of lignocellulose via efficiently breaking the biomass recalcitrance using biochemical conversion and thermochemical conversion. After obtaining the high-purity component, lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, techniques should be developed to transform them into chemicals, materials or fuel. Besides, the metabolic engineering of microorganisms or catalytic fractionation strategy is also a promising strategy for the separation of the derivative of a certain component from the reaction mixture and the utilization of the residual solid during catalytic fractionation. The ultimate goal of biomass utilization is that can achieve the large-scale production of biofuels and biomaterials in a cost-effective and competitive performance as compared to petroleum-derived equivalents.
Original Research articles and review articles focusing on the interpretation of the inherent structure of raw materials, advanced fractionation, characterization of the isolated components, and effective conversion of lignocellulose as well as the applications of lignocellulosic materials and their derivatives are all welcome. The topical interests include, but are not limited to the following areas:
• Genetic engineering of lignocellulosic feedstocks for decreasing biomass recalcitrance
• Novel and high-efficiency biomass fractionation methods for improving lignin quality and promoting the enzyme hydrolysis of cellulose
• Structural elucidation of native and fractionated biomass, such as cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin.
• Catalytic fractionation and depolymerization of biomass
• Metabolic engineering of microorganisms to improve the production of fuels and chemicals from biomass
• Biotechnology for the preparation of platform chemicals
• Upgrading of lignin to advanced fuels and chemicals
• Enzyme hydrolysis and fermentation of lignocellulose to produce alcohols
• Functional materials from lignocellulose and their fractionated components
• Process simulation of integrated biorefinery, techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of production of biofuels and biochemicals from biomass
• Bioenergy and biorefinery results from the pilot, demonstration, and industrial plants
The chemicals, energies and materials from lignocellulosic biomass are renewable and sustainable and have the potential to replace fossil feedstocks. Biorefinery, a process to fractionate lignocellulose into the three major components, is considered one of the most promising strategies for bioenergy, biomaterials and biochemicals. Until now, due to the complex hierarchy and chemical structures, a tiny proportion of lignocellulose is valorized into value-added products, and most of them are burned or just discarded, although biomass is the most renewable resource on earth. Therefore, there is a need to exploit the technology (including genetic, biotechnological, and chemical approaches) that can in-depth interpret the heterogeneous structure of lignocellulose and process that can efficiently fractionate the lignocellulose into cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and develop the technology that can convert the lignocellulose into high-value chemical products and high-performance functional materials in thermochemical conversion and biochemical conversion.
Since the complex compositional structure of lignocellulosic biomass and biomass recalcitrance severely inhibited their effective conversion and selective production of high-value products. To overcome this disadvantage, using genetic and biotechnological approaches can modify cell wall composition and change interactions between the major cell wall polymers-cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, which would reduce the biomass recalcitrance and facilitate the subsequent fractionation and conversion of the feedstocks. Furthermore, a comprehensive understanding of its heterogeneous structure by advanced characterization of the state-of-the-art techniques is highly needed, which will guide the further fractionation of lignocellulose via efficiently breaking the biomass recalcitrance using biochemical conversion and thermochemical conversion. After obtaining the high-purity component, lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses, techniques should be developed to transform them into chemicals, materials or fuel. Besides, the metabolic engineering of microorganisms or catalytic fractionation strategy is also a promising strategy for the separation of the derivative of a certain component from the reaction mixture and the utilization of the residual solid during catalytic fractionation. The ultimate goal of biomass utilization is that can achieve the large-scale production of biofuels and biomaterials in a cost-effective and competitive performance as compared to petroleum-derived equivalents.
Original Research articles and review articles focusing on the interpretation of the inherent structure of raw materials, advanced fractionation, characterization of the isolated components, and effective conversion of lignocellulose as well as the applications of lignocellulosic materials and their derivatives are all welcome. The topical interests include, but are not limited to the following areas:
• Genetic engineering of lignocellulosic feedstocks for decreasing biomass recalcitrance
• Novel and high-efficiency biomass fractionation methods for improving lignin quality and promoting the enzyme hydrolysis of cellulose
• Structural elucidation of native and fractionated biomass, such as cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin.
• Catalytic fractionation and depolymerization of biomass
• Metabolic engineering of microorganisms to improve the production of fuels and chemicals from biomass
• Biotechnology for the preparation of platform chemicals
• Upgrading of lignin to advanced fuels and chemicals
• Enzyme hydrolysis and fermentation of lignocellulose to produce alcohols
• Functional materials from lignocellulose and their fractionated components
• Process simulation of integrated biorefinery, techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of production of biofuels and biochemicals from biomass
• Bioenergy and biorefinery results from the pilot, demonstration, and industrial plants